Second Gen Stalking
by Amulet Misty
Summary: In which Boruto, Himawari and Sarada follow their parents' footsteps - by attempting to unmask Kakashi Hatake. Oh, and Mitsuki's there too. [Twelve Shots of Summer: Second Raid]


**Spoiler Warning! - If you are an anime-only watcher or have not read the last chapter of Naruto + Naruto Gaiden, there will be some spoilers.**

* * *

 **Second Gen Stalking**

The sun blazed down on The Leaf Village and most people opted to stay indoors because of the heat. There were still people out and about, though; the shinobi were accustomed to much harsher circumstances than this. Still, it wasn't as if the heat was comfortable for them.

Shade so generously given by the tree to the children underneath it was much appreciated.

"Don't you think you're getting a bit old to still be vandalising the Hokage monument?" Sarada gave Boruto an appraising look.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Painting the Hokage faces become a sort of monthly thing for him to do. It had been more fun at the start, since his stupid dad blew up but now he didn't even bother getting him down himself. Yesterday he sent Konohamaru to retrieve Bolt. Though, Bolt was sure his teacher had wanted the opportunity to lecture him about his antics for a while.

As a sort of punishment, he was force to take Himawari out along with him for the whole day. That was how he ended up here, pushing Himawari on the swing attached to the tree. While they didn't have any missions today, Sarada and Mitsuki came to help him babysit her, after much begging on Boruto's part.

"Faster!" His younger sister seemed to be disappointed by the lack of energy he was putting into pushing her.

He was going to ignore her request but Sarada offered to take over. Well, he supposed it was a good thing that Sarada had a soft spot for his sister and coddled her whenever she was around.

Himawari started cheering and giggling as her swings went higher and higher. Sarada grinned

Sarada grinned, obviously pleased with herself.

"I think we've spent enough time on the swings. Could try playing with your sister _indoors,_ now?" The suggestion came from Mitsuki, who hadn't spoken much until now.

Even though he was leaning on the tree and was directly under the shade, he still seemed to be sweating more than his teammates. Boruto wondered if the jutsu usually used had anything to do with him being more susceptible to the heat. He stretched his arms kinda like rubber, so maybe he got hot easily like rubber too?

"Nah," said Boruto. "Himawari will get bored, and if she gets bored she gets grumpy and if she gets grumpy, well…" His mind flashed back to when he accidentally ripped her stuffed toy. "You don't want to see Himawari when she's grumpy, let's just say that."

Hmm…what _should_ they do after this?

"Hey. Hima, do you want to make dad's face pretty?"

"Pretty?" The word caught her attention.

Sarada stopped pushing Himawari and turned to glare at the elder Uzumaki. "Hold it! I get that _you_ might not want to stop defacing your dad's…well…face but you shouldn't be dragging Himawari into it."

Waving her off, he continued. "How about it, Hima? It'll be fun!"

Now, the little innocent Himawari had seen her brother's painting on the Hokage statues before. Someone always shouted at him afterwards, but it did look very fun. She wanted to try painting her dad's face once too. Maybe if Boruto helped her write it, she could send him a nice message too! "Sure!"

"Heh, let's go then!"

"You're taking care of Himawari _because_ you painted the faces again. Do you really think you should be –"

Boruto somehow managed to scoop up Himawari and started running towards the side of the mountain.

Sarada sighed. "Come on Mitsuki. We really can't let him do it. At least, not twice in one day."

Mitsuki stared at her blankly.

She shook her head disapprovingly. Where was Mitsuki's sharpness when you need it?

"You better catch up." She disappeared off after Boruto.

"Right…right…I'm coming." He pulled himself away from the tree sluggishly. He didn't _like_ feeling so miserable just because of some extra heat and even in his condition he still wanted to see how things were going to turn out.

xxxxx

Boruto and Himawari stood atop of a building that gave them a clear view of Hokage Rock. "First, we have to get a clear view of the faces. Picture what you want to paint on with your mind."

"Ooh, okay!" Himawari squinted her eyes in concentration, bringing an amused smile to Boruto's lips.

"Once you're done, we'll go get my paints. I've hidden them nearby to make it easier when I feel like doing this. I can't believe no one's found them yet, really."

"They will if I tell them where it is." Looks like Sarada tailed them.

"You wouldn't do that," Boruto said dismissively.

The Uchiha crossed her arms.

"…Or maybe you would."

On one hand, he had already brought Himawari all the way here but on the other hand, perhaps choosing to do this now would impede his future plans to vandalise the faces. He'd have to think of a whole other prank, and he didn't know if he could be bothered to do that.

"Big bro!"

"Yeah?"

"How come the sixth Hokage's monument has a mask on it?"

Boruto and Sarada stared at the face in question.

"Huh," said Boruto. "Never really thought about it before but it _is_ kinda weird that they kept his mask on for somethin' people are supposed to remember him by."

"Maybe the village wanted to depict him as accurately as possible. I mean, no one's seen him without his mask on, right?" Sarada had once been told the story by her mother that she, Sarada's father and the Seventh had all tried to get the Sixth to get his mask off, though every attempt ended up In failure.

"Isn't the Sixth in the village today? Never told me why the Sixth came today, but I think I saw him walking around."

"I wanna see under the mask!" Himawari piped up.

The two elder kids looked at each other before looking down at the small girl.

"If the Seventh wasn't able to get to see under the mask, I doubt we could get it off him," Sarada said, stating the facts.

"I wanna see!" Himawari repeated adamantly.

 _Well…_

"Alright! Let's do this, then! Today's mission is to get the Sixth's mask off!" Boruto declared.

" _Eh?_ In every sense of the word – _eh!?"_ Sarada's eyes widened. "This is the Sixth we're talking about! I doubt we could get him to just take off his mask when no one ever has before."

"Doesn't hurt to try, does it?"

"Try – " Wheez, "-what?"

Mizuki had _just_ showed up, and he was panting as if he had travelled to the Sand Village and back, or something.

"Man, you _really_ don't do well in the heat," said Boruto, noticing Mizuki's fatigue. "Anyway, Hima wants to go and try and see under the Sixth's mask. We're gonna go find him now. See ya!"

Taking Hima's hand, Boruto took off once again.

"Wait – ugh, never mind!" Sarada threw her hands in the air in defeat. "No point trying to talk him out of it once he's set his mind on something. It's better than vandalising the monument, I guess." She then leapt off the building, trailing after Boruto.

"But I –"pant, "- just got-" pant, "here…"

He was no one but the noisy cicadas in the background.

"I hate summer," he muttered to himself.

xxxxx

"Right. We're not holding anything back," whispered Boruto. He, Himawari and Sarada peered around the corner to the path where the Sixth Hokage was walking down. "Our first strike will be a direct blow, I'm sure of it."

"If it works it'd be a bit too easy, don't you think?" Sarada said, doubtfully.

"You always worry too much." Boruto nodded to Himawari. "You're up, little sis."

Himawari nodded back and with her secret weapon in her hands she walked right up to the Sixth, as they had planned.

"Hello!"

"Hey there." The masked man himself bent down so that he could meet the girl's eyes. "What are you doing running around by yourself, Himawari?"

"I went to get ice cream," she said cheerfully with a giggle.

"She's overdoing it with the friendly a little," Boruto observed.

"I don't know what you're talking about. She's always that cute." Sarada's glasses glinted at just the right moment then.

"If you say so."

The younger Uzumaki showed the Sixth the two ice creams she had. "My brother told me to buy one for him, but when I came home, he didn't want it. He said I got him the wrong flavour so he told me to go back and get him another one." Himawari changed her expression from happy to sad in about two seconds. "He's mean."

Boruto huffed. "She's making me look like a bad guy! That wasn't part of the plan!"

"She's not wrong."

" _Hey._ "

"I already had ice cream so I don't know what to do with this one." Himawari then suddenly looked up at the Sixth as if she got some bright idea. "Will you eat the ice cream?"

"Her cuteness power is overloading," Sarada whispered excitedly. "He can't resist that! No one can!"

"…Alright."

"He's taking it!" Boruto whispered back.

The silver haired former Hokage took the ice cream cone from Himawari. It was getting closer and closer to his mouth. His hand was raising and inching closer to his mask. Any second now and –

"Woof!" A ball of white fur tackled the Sixth Hokage to the ground and swallowed the poor ice cream hole.

" _What!?"_ Boruto and Sarada yelled, forgetting about keeping quiet. Where did that thing – it was a dog – even come from?

"Oh man, sorry about that Kakash- er, Lord Sixth." Kiba rushed up to pull his dog off the Sixth. "Akamaru's having some kind of mid-life crisis and has been going around trying to steal ice cream from everyone in the village."

Boruto couldn't believe what he just saw. "What dog eats ice cream during a mid-life crisis?"

"I didn't even know dogs _had_ mid-life crisis'." Sarada's mind was equally boggled.

Kiba tried to hold Akamaru back, as the dog proceeded to try and get ice cream that Himawari still had. The girl let out a small 'eep' and retreated back to where Boruto and Sarada were hiding.

"Why're you here? You could still over the Sixth yours instead!" said Boruto.

"…but I want to eat it."

"No way! This is for the mission – on second thought, never mind." He didn't want to get Himawari mad.

"We need a new plan." It looked like Sarada was getting into this now.

"Plan? Are we making a plan?" It was Mitsuki. He finally caught up to them again.

"Yes, our first one failed," said Boruto, frowning. "Like Sarada said, though, it can't be _that_ easy."

"The Sixth must be visiting the Hokage at some point today," Sarada said thoughtfully. "Let's wait out there and ambush him."

"At Pops' office?" Boruto made a sour face.

"Don't be such a baby. Let's just go!"

"Fine."

The three of them left Mitsuki all by his lonesome.

Again.

Mitsuki gazed in the direction of the office.

"…I'm starting to see a pattern here…"

xxxxx

The three children waited it out while the Sixth was in the room with Naruto. Shikamaru noticed them, but he thought reporting it to Naruto would be too much of a drag, so he let it slide. It wasn't like they could hear what they were discussing inside the room anyway.

After a while, the door to Naruto's office opened.

"Thanks Kakashi," they heard Naruto say.

"Just remember what I told you."

Normally, Boruto would keep this exchange in mind and pester his dad to tell him what they were talking about, but today his full concentration was to getting the Sixth to take off his mask.

"What's your plan, anyway?" Boruto asked Sarada. "'Cause it looks like he's about to leave."

"This."

Sarada moved her hands quickly. "Fireball Jutsu!" She blew out a small ball of fire up towards the ceiling. It wasn't big enough to do any real damage, but it did land in the perfect spot.

 _Riiiiing._

A loud alarm sounded and instantly water from the sprinklers on the ceiling came raining down.

"Haha, you set off the fire alarm?" Boruto looked around gleefully as chaos ensued and everyone rushed into the office, probably to try and save the files and protect all the electronics inside. "Genius!"

"Hehe, thanks." Sarada smiled, looking bashful for small moment. "Anyway, look!"

The Sixth was simply standing there, while the others in the building started rushing out, not knowing the cause of the alarm. As he was not wearing anything on his head today, his clothes were getting wet. That, of course, included his mask.

"Now," said Sarada. "All we have to do is follow him and watch for when he changes his mask. He's surely not going to keep it on wet all day."

It sounded like the perfect idea.

That was, until the shadow of the Seventh Hokage loomed up behind them.

"What are you kids doing here?"

"We – er." Crap, what excuse were they going to make?

" _Papa!"_ Himawari ran towards her dad and gave him a hug. "I had ice cream today!"

"Huh? Oh, that's nice, Hima."

"It was chocolate flavoured!"

"That's great," said Naruto, nodding along at his youngest child's words.

In that space of time, Boruto and Sarada had made their escape. They had only been distracted by Naruto for a second and they had already lost site of the Hokage. Where could he have gone? They ran all around the building, but it turned out that he had already left. So much for the perfect plan.

"Knowing our luck I bet he's already changed," Sarada said, admitting defeat for this one.

"You're probably right…"

They walked out of the building looking dejected.

…

"Wow. They walked _right past me_."

This wasn't even an accident anymore. Mitsuki was sure that some higher power out there just wanted him to be left out.

xxxxx

Boruto grinned, knowing that Sarada finally gave in to his ploy. It wasn't like he was vandalising his father's face this time.

"Hey! Lord Sixth!" He yelled out. "Is this what you really look like!?"

The blond couldn't hear exactly what he was saying, but he knew that his teacher was shouting up at her from down below.

" _Borutoooooo!"_

The giant open-mouthed, toothy smile that Boruto had painted onto the Sixth's face seemed to be mocking those on the ground.

A commotion must have been brewing again down there, because both his father and the Sixth came out. For once, his dad didn't look angry or annoyed that he had done this. On the contrary, he was covering his mouth, looking like he was trying his best not to laugh.

That…was a change.

Even his dad found it funny to see his former teacher like that.

The Sixth didn't look too angry either. Boruto didn't need to be able to see behind his mask to tell that the Sixth was smiling.

Even though Boruto and Sarada got a full lecture from Konohamaru later, and they didn't even get to successfully see the Sixth's real face, the two agreed that today was pretty fun. Himawari got off scot free like she always did (Boruto was starting to believe in this 'cute' power).

Oh, and Mitsuki didn't get in trouble either – by the time he got to Hokage Rock, the painting was already being cleaned off.

"This day was the worse…" Mitsuki dragged his feet as he made his way back home. The good thing was, the sun was setting, so the heat would be more bearable. He still turned up the air conditioner to full volume in his room, however.

He didn't actually get to participate in any of the shenanigans today, but he still felt wiped out. He also felt hungry.

On the way back, he passed a man who was licking an ice cream with not a care in the world. The guy had dark hair and a mole on his jaw; Mitsuki was sure he hadn't seen this guy before but he looked kind of familiar. Was it him, or did this guy give out the same feeling as the Sixth?

…

Nah. After not having his face discovered for so long, he wouldn't just be standing there licking ice cream out in the open.

He really was tired if he could even consider being lucky enough to just _happen_ to be the one to see the Sixth's face.

Mitsuki continued on his way back, contemplating what he'd have for dinner that night.

xxxxx

When the Sixth finished up his ice cream, he returned home, glad to see that while The Leaf had changed a lot, it's heart remained the same.

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 **A/N: Tadaa! Here's my super ridiculously late second entry to TSOS '15. I really need to learn to be on time. Seriously. The prompt was 'Behind the Mask'. Anyway, I kinda just went and gave the kids a chance to try and unmask Kakashi. You're not a Team 7 unless you try to Unmask Kakashi. That was definitely my favourite filler episode of Naruto...It never fails to make me laugh. I'm not a hundred percent sure if I've got the characters right, since we don't know _that_ much about them yet and if any of the details about the Leaf Village are wrong feel free to tell me. Or if it's so wrong that it leaves a giant plothole then...uh...let's just hide the hole by filling it with dirt. Yep. -shot-  
**

 **Thanks for reading!**


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